EPA finalized protective and science-based federal human health criteria to protect Washington's waters, including waters where tribes hold treaty-reserved rights to fish.

United States v. Elyria, City of, No. 22-cv-02026 (N.D. Ohio Nov. 9, 2022). A settling CWA defendant that allegedly violated a prior consent judgment related to discharges of pollutants from the city's sewer system must pay a $100,000 civil penalty to the United States and $100,000 into Ohio's Surface Water Improvement Fund, and implement an Integrated Wet Weather Control Plan to be completed by December 31, 2044.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the availability of a draft guidance document intended to establish a new, nationally consistent architecture for coastal zone area contingency plans.

EPA entered into a proposed consent decree under the CWA and the APA in Environmental Law & Policy Center v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, No. 3:19-cv-295 (N.D. Ohio), that would create a binding schedule for the development of a TMDL to address nutrient and algae impairments in western Lake Erie.

United States v. Lakewood, Ohio, City of, No. 1:22-cv-01964 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 31, 2022).  An interim partial consent decree requires a settling CWA defendant to undertake several projects to greatly reduce discharges of untreated sanitary sewage into Lake Erie and the Rocky River; submit an updated plan to reduce discharges of sanitary sewage in the remainder of defendant’s sewer system; implement its updated plan through a subsequent, enforceable agreement; and pay a $100,000 civil penalty.

A proposed settlement agreement under CERCLA, RCRA, and the CWA requires settling defendants to pay the United States for costs incurred responding to environmental contamination at the West Nome Tank Farm site in Nome, Alaska.

United States v. Petroff Trucking Co., Inc., No. 20-cv-930-DWD (S.D. Ill. Oct. 24, 2022). A settling CWA defendant that discharged pollutants from point sources into waters of the United States without a permit must perform compensatory mitigation.

EPA Region 1 announced the availability of the draft NPDES small wastewater treatment facility general permit modification for discharges to certain waters of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

United States v. Pozsgai, No. 88-6545 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 14, 2022). Under a proposed consent decree concerning settling CWA defendants' discharge of pollutants without a permit into waters of the United States, the owner of an adjacent property that has entered into a purchase agreement for the affected property must restore a significant portion of the impacted areas and protect surrounding woodlands.

United States v. Enbridge Energy, L.P., No. 1:16-cv-914 (W.D. Mich. Oct. 12, 2022). A proposed modification of a consent decree concerning two 2010 oil spills that resulted from oil transmission pipeline failures near Marshall, Michigan, and Romeoville, Illinois, would establish requirements and procedures by which settling CWA and OPA defendants may seek partial termination of specified obligations under the decree; explicitly designate specified pipeline segments on Lines 61 and 62 as “replacement segments” that are subject to additional leak detection system-related requirements; establish deadlines applicable to the resumption of in-line inspections on Line 62 following a long period when that pipeline was not in service; and confirm that defendants will not be required to perform axial crack in-line inspections on the dual pipelines and associated piping prior to expiration of a time period that corresponds to one-half of the estimated remaining fatigue life of the worst potential axial crack feature that could have survived the 2017 hydrostatic pressure tests.